Bethesda home for girls stole babies

 

As the article says, Bethesda is closed, but their are still similar operations today.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/bethesda-home-girls-stolen-babies/index.html

 

by Tyler Kingkade

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 Nov. 11, 2021More than three decades have passed since a federal lawsuit and a state investigation exposed the abuse hundreds of girls endured at the Bethesda Home for Girls, forcing the home to close.

Yet, the shadow of Bethesda lingers.

In recent interviews, more than a dozen former residents — most of whom are speaking about their experiences publicly for the first time — described their ongoing trauma from the months they spent locked up in Bethesda as children. The women said their relatives sent them to the home because they were rebellious, or were caught drinking or smoking. Many of them were pregnant.

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The former Bethesda residents described a brutal facility, where girls were beaten and called “whores” and “harlots.” Staff members censored the girls’ communication with outsiders, including their parents, former residents said. And for those who were pregnant, another trauma awaited: the removal of their babies.

It all went on in secret. There was no oversight from the state government, which at the time didn’t require child care centers to register with the state, let alone be inspected.

Then, in 1982, the allegations of abuse exploded into public view, in a federal lawsuit followed by investigations by welfare agents and judicial officers.

“The testimony of the things that occurred in the home was horrific,” said Dan Wise, an attorney who was appointed by the county court in 1984 to investigate Bethesda. “And it was, of course, all done in the name of the Lord with Bible-backed verses. It was an unbelievable situation behind closed doors.”

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